Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia Issues Statement Following GAO’s Decisions that Trump’s Top DHS Appointments Were An Illegal Order of Succession

HOUSTON, TX – Today, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) issued a statement in response to Trump's announcement that he will be nominating Chad Wolf, the Acting Homeland Security Secretary, to be the permanent head of the agency following the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) decisions that President Trump violated federal law when he installed Chad Wolf as the Acting Secretary and Ken Cuccinelli as the Acting Deputy Secretary:

"This Administration has once again displayed poor leadership and behavior inconsistent with the law when they implemented an invalid order of succession. The President did not present these appointees for Senate confirmation and now it's too late. Chad Wolf is unqualified, given everything he has done illegally while in his current position. This includes the recent deployment of DHS agents to American cities against protesters and the blatant disregard for the U.S. Supreme Court when he directed USCIS to reject all initial requests for DACA applications and associated applications for Employment Authorization Documents."

"I thank Chairman Bennie Thompson and Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney for requesting that the GAO conduct an emergency review of the legality of these appointments. The review concluded that these appointments were made illegally. And as a result, I join with my colleagues in calling on Chad Wolf to immediately step down from his position and for Mr. Cuccinelli to resign from Federal service."

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Congresswoman Sylvia R. Garcia was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2018, becoming the first Latina ever to represent the Texas 29th Congressional District. She serves on the House Judiciary and Financial Services Committees.